


Scarves, Molasses, & Henry VIII

by ARustySpork



Series: Several Shots at Oneshots [1]
Category: Falsettos - Lapine/Finn
Genre: Cold Weather, History, Jason & Marvin (Falsettos) Bonding, M/M, Whizzer Brown & Jason Friendship, park, scarf
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-11
Updated: 2019-05-11
Packaged: 2020-02-29 19:30:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18784717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ARustySpork/pseuds/ARustySpork
Summary: “Marvin!” he exclaimed, jumping up from his spot, “did you know that part of Boston flooded with molasses in 1919? Because I do, I know that now, twenty-one people died.”Marvin blinked. This boy didn’t look sketchy, but Jason was still talking to a stranger in the middle of New York City. Talking to a stranger, and learning about a molasses flood apparently.“I…did not know that,” he admitted, looking between the boy and Jason. “Jason, you can’t just run off, this is, like, the most populated city in the country.”Jason rolled his eyes, shuffling over to Marvin. “I’m gonna go play, or something.” He rose onto his tip-toes and whispered into Marvin’s ear, “he’s pretty, you should talk to him.” He rested back on his feet, then proceeded to stalk off to a pile of leaves.





	Scarves, Molasses, & Henry VIII

**Author's Note:**

> The book Whizzer reads is based on a book I'm reading right now. It's called "Bad Days in History" and i strongly recommend.
> 
> And, if you can't tell based on my other works, I love a cold Marvin headcanon.

This child was driving Marvin crazy.

That wasn’t to say Marvin disliked Jason, he was a good kid and all, he was just a bit of a handful. Marvin had been babysitting him since the kid was four, now, two years later, little had changed. It was a great job, Marvin was starting his senior year of high school, so all his money went towards saving for university. The gig paid well.

Jason wasn’t a handful in the way that he threw tantrums and didn’t listen to what Marvin said, he instead logic-ed himself out of situations and made it difficult for Marvin to have any authority when the kid was throwing a 1960s court cases into the mix in order to disprove his argument. Usually, they spent their hours inside playing endless games of chess and watching home renovation shows. Today, however, Jason’s mom had taken the day off work due to sickness and had asked Marvin to take the kid outside for once so she could be alone.

Marvin had decided to take Jason to the park, which he immediately rejected. Jason wanted to stay in his house and try out his new olive wood chess board in Bubbe had gotten him from Greece, but Marvin knew that wasn’t an option.

“Marviiiiiin,” Jason groaned, dragging his feet loudly against the pavement, “can we go home?”

Marvin shook his head, continuing the short trek over to the play structure. “C’mon, we’re just gonna hang out for a few hours, we don’t even have to do anything. I can sit at a table and do homework, and you can, like, play or something.”

Jason crossed his skinny arms, trying to look intimidating. It wasn’t working. “This is a violation of my human rights, you can’t make me do anything I don’t want to.”

Marvin shrugged. “You’re a child, you don’t have any rights.”

Jason opened his mouth to protest, then closed it. He only tugged his toque snug over his curly hair and continued to follow Marvin through the gate to the park. It was October, the weather was a little chilly, but only sweater weather. Apparently today was cold enough that they appeared to be the only two in the park. As they walked over the grass towards the play structure, the fallen brown and yellow leaves crunched below their feet.

As they reached the structure, Jason immediately began bounding up the wooden platforms towards the tubular slide. It was a large, wooden structure, it looked very old and made Marvin very nervous. He cautiously followed Jason up the platforms, the wood creaked under his feet and made him feel like they were about to collapse below him at any second. He decided it’d be best to sit on the highest platform, so he could do his schoolwork and also watched Jason. He doubted the kid would go far anyways.

As Marvin pulled out the contents of his backpack and pulled out his notebook, he realized that he also wished they could be inside. It wasn’t fun using a pencil out in the cold, he felt like he couldn’t move his right hand. The inability to write, mixed with physics, was an unpleasant combination. God, electric fields were hell, right now Marvin wanted to bash his head in. His ears were cold, his face was cold, his hands were cold. It wasn’t even that could outside, but Marvin was cold. About five questions in, Marvin looked up from his paper. He looked left, he looked right, then he stood up and spun 360 degrees as he looked around. Jason was nowhere to be seen.

Shit. Marvin could not lose this kid. Jason knew how to take a bus, for all he knew the kid could be halfway to Canada by now.

“Jason?” he called, trying not to sound as nervous as he actually was. “Jason?” he repeated, a little louder than before.

He quickly stuffed his books back into his backpack and walked across the structure. This thing was a bit of a maze, lots of areas closed off from sight be rows of wooden boards. This thing was a serious safety hazard, but that wasn’t Marvin’s main concern. He slipped down an angled ladder and proceeded to walk across the pit of pebbles. Whoever thought small rocks was a good way to break a child’s fall was an idiot, Marvin could feel his shoes filling up with the things.

He was growing more frantic, rounding the corner and looking into the distance to see if maybe the kid had run off to the fence. He spun back around, facing towards a small, closed off area that was probably meant to act like a jail for a game of cops and robbers. Jason was sitting in the corner, blocking himself from the wind. Next to him, was a boy about Marvin’s age. The boy had a large book in his lap, Jason was leaning over to look at the pictures, pointing at one as the boy explained what it was.

The boy had brown hair, peaking out from under a pompom-ed toque. He had a red, knitted scarf wrapped around his neck, and was wearing a green army-type jacket. He looked up from the book when he saw Marvin looking at them, he raised an inquisitive eyebrow. Jason looked up as well, a crooked grin erupting from his face. One of his bottom teeth was missing, leaving a gaping hole in his smile.

“Marvin!” he exclaimed, jumping up from his spot, “did you know that part of Boston flooded with molasses in 1919? Because I do, I know that now, twenty-one people died.”

Marvin blinked. This boy didn’t look sketchy, but Jason was still talking to a stranger in the middle of New York City. Talking to a stranger, and learning about a molasses flood apparently.

“I…did not know that,” he admitted, looking between the boy and Jason. “Jason, you can’t just run off, this is, like, the most populated city in the country.”

Jason rolled his eyes, shuffling over to Marvin. “I’m gonna go play, or something.” He rose onto his tip-toes and whispered into Marvin’s ear, “he’s pretty, you should talk to him.” He rested back on his feet, then proceeded to stalk off to a pile of leaves.

Marvin blinked in mild disbelief. He really didn’t need a six-year-old kid to do his matchmaking. He was brought back to reality when the nameless boy broke the silence.

“Nice kid, is he yours?”

He had a smooth, nonchalant and welcoming voice.

“Uh, yeah, he is. I mean, not mine, he isn’t my child, I don’t have a son, I mean, I’m gay so that doesn’t really happe-he’s not mine. I babysit him, is what I mean, I know his parents so I’m just watching him and stuff.”

Great, not only did he somersault over his words, but he also came out to some random stranger. The boy seemed to be enjoying Marvin’s discomfort, he smirked, closing his book so he could pay better attention to this sad excuse for a conversation.

“I’m Marvin,” Marvin said, in a desperate attempt to change the subject.

“Whizzer,” said the boy. Huh, must be some weird Millennial name.

“Whatcha reading?” Marvin asked, moving to stand where Jason once sat. It seemed weird to sit down beside Whizzer, for all Marvin knew, this guy didn’t even want to be talking to him.

Whizzer lifted the book so Marvin could see the cover. “It’s a book about different things that happened in history during each day of the year.”

Marvin sighed a little too loudly. “Ugh, I’ve always hated history, it’s just boring things I don’t really need to know.”

Whizzer looked taken aback, like Marvin had just stabbed him through the neck with a rusty spork. “Um, do you also hate happiness? Joy? Love, happiness, and beauty? History is not boring, it’s like old gossip, stories that will never have endings, it’s everything good about modern day except you don’t actually have to be there.”

Marvin blinked. “Wow, passionate much?”

Whizzer narrowed his eyes, then gestured for Marvin to sit next to him. “Look, Henry VIII,” he said, flipping open his book to a page near there front. He pointed at a painting of a young lady. “That’s Anne of Cleves, his fourth wife. Henry’s matchmaker set them up, and he absolutely hated her. He had to marry her though for political reasons. Once they got married, they were supposed to consummate their marriage, but it never actually happened. He just kissed her, then decided he hated her even more. The thing was, Anne didn’t know that her marriage was never consummated, she was so sheltered she didn’t even know what sex was. They ended up getting divorced and Henry had the matchmaker beheaded and his head mounted on a spike.”

“Huh,” Marvin replied, unconsciously leaning in to get a better look at the painting.

“Jesus,” Whizzer said, turning to Marvin. “You are shaking like a chihuahua, it’s not even that cold outside.”

“I know,” Marvin replied, with a glare, “I can’t help it, I’m always cold.”

“Here,” Whizzer said, reaching towards his neck and unwrapping the red scarf, “no wonder you’re cold, you’re not even wearing a toque.”

Whizzer took the scarf and wound it around Marvin’s neck, making sure to cover his ears. Marvin just let him, looking at him as he did it. They were in a rather close proximity, close enough that Whizzer could probably stab him right now. If that was even his name…

“Marvin!”

Marvin’s eyes grew wide as he jumped to his feet to follow the sound of Jason’s voice, Whizzer was right behind him. He found an alive-and-well Jason sitting in a ginormous pile of leaves. It looked like he had pushed all the other piles of leaves together to form one huge mega-pile. His head was just poking out, a large smile evident on his face.

Marvin sighed, but had a smile on his face nonetheless. “Jesus, Jason, I had a heart attack.”

Jason stumbled out, a few leaves stuck in the curls of his hair. “This wasn’t as great of an idea as I though it would be. It rained a few days ago and the leaves are all wet and mushy.”

That was right, the clothes on the bottom part of Jason’s body were darkened in dirty water from the leaves. He could only imagine how cold Jason was gonna get if they stayed out any longer, and Marvin definitely couldn’t take the kid home with pneumonia.

“Okay,” he said, quickly checking his phone for the time, “I should probably get you back home before you turn into a human popsicle.”

Jason nodded eagerly, giving Marvin the impression that he had done this on purpose just so they could go home sooner. Marvin readjusted his backpack on his shoulder, ready to start back to Jason’s house, when he remembered that Whizzer was still there. Marvin turned to the taller boy, beginning to take the scarf off.

“Here, I should probably give this back-”

“It’s fine,” Whizzer interjected, “keep it for now, or you’ll freeze on the way home. Just call me to return it later.”

Call him? As in, call him call him? Like, with a phone? And with a phone number?

“I me-I mean, yeah, cool, okay.”

Whizzer stood there expectantly. Was “call” some secret code or something? What was he supposed to be doing right now? Jason nudged him in the side, causing Marvin to look his way. The kid made a sign with his hand out of view of Marvin, putting his hand in a fist and pointing out his pinkie and thumb. Oh, yeah, duh. Marvin unlocked his phone and handed it over, before Whizzer quickly typed in his number.

“Alright,” Whizzer said, handing back the phone. “It was nice meeting you, Jason.” He held out his hand for a high-five, to which Jason obliged. “And you, Marv.”

Marv, no one had ever called him Marv. Except that one girl in ninth grade that was totally hitting him. When she said it, it made him want to vomit, but when Whizzer said it, he felt warm and fuzzy inside.

“Right,” Marvin said, awkwardly backing away and trying to hide his smile. “I’ll see you, I guess, I mean, yeah.”

Marvin continued his combination of backing away and waving and talking in a flustered state until Jason finally pulled him away. Somehow it was the six-year-old that managed to keep a cool head.

Now, Marvin just had to return that scarf.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, it's my first ever one shot.
> 
> If you want me to write more, please send me prompts or suggestions and I will do my very best to write it (it could literally be one word, just let me know what you want to see!).
> 
> As always, comments are well appreciated.


End file.
